O-I Glass, which employs around 500 people at its Glasshouse Loan site, pleaded guilty to one charge following the incident on 3 February 2024.
The case was brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Worker sustained burns from waste glass
The incident occurred as a 32-year-old worker was clearing spilled molten glass and hot water from the basement floor using a shovel loader.
During the operation, some of the material spilled from the loader bucket into the cab, burning the worker and causing scald injuries to eight percent of his body. He has since made a full recovery.
The work formed part of routine waste-handling operations beneath the site’s furnaces, where rejected molten or formed glass from the production process is channelled down chutes into large, moveable skips.
Coolant water runs alongside the glass, generating extremely hot water and steam.
Because the furnaces operate continuously, these skips can fill quickly and sometimes overflow, causing waste material to spill onto the basement floor. It was this spilled waste that the worker had been tasked with clearing when the incident happened.
Shovel loader missing door
An HSE investigation found that the shovel loader’s protective front door, designed to shield operators from molten glass, had been missing since March 2022.
The original door had been damaged and removed but never replaced, despite the fault being reported to a site engineer.
In the almost two years that followed, other workers had also reported being struck or having their footwear burnt by molten glass entering the cab.
HSE Inspector Kathy Gostick said: “This was an avoidable ordeal for a young worker. It is sheer luck he has been able to recover from his serious injuries.
“Although the protective front door had been removed and reported to the on-site engineer, drivers had continued to work and operate the loader with it missing.
“Some operatives even described being struck or having footwear burnt by molten glass falling into the cab as a result.”
Company fined £600k
O-I Glass admitted breaching Regulation 5(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, which requires employers to ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
The company also admitted an offence under section 33(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which makes it an offence to fail to comply with such health and safety duties.
The company was fined £600,000 at Stirling Sheriff Court on 23 September 2025.
Following the incident, the company removed the loader from service. It was only returned to use in June 2024 after being fitted with a steel front door incorporating a glass window and protective wire mesh.
Gostick continued: “When work equipment is being selected, its suitability for the environment it is going to be used in must be risk assessed.
“In this case the protective door was not suitable to protect against impacts from hot and molten glass and therefore was often broken and in the end never replaced.
“Had an appropriate door been selected and maintained in place this accident would not have occurred.”
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